The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
In general, identifying places in a city where people aggregate, recognizing streets with heavy pedestrian traffic, and otherwise understanding the flow of people in a city is important to various industries. For example, this information can be useful to tourists. Knowing the location of the city's hotspots is also important to many vendors. Various municipal organizations, such as police, can find pedestrian flow information useful as well.
Further, various computing devices, including many portable devices, now support software applications that display interactive digital maps. Some of these software applications, such as mapping and navigation applications, are developed primarily for displaying interactive digital maps. Other software applications, such as web browsers, may display interactive digital maps along with other content.